


Friends Again

by Pheek



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: #gray ghost, Angst, Blood, Body Horror, F/M, Friendship, Gore, Hurt/Comfort, trigger warning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-25
Updated: 2020-04-30
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:27:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23833108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pheek/pseuds/Pheek
Summary: For 2020 Phic Phight! Valerie and Danny have started a tentative friendship after being away from each other post-breakup.
Relationships: Danny Fenton/Valerie Gray
Comments: 14
Kudos: 82
Collections: Phic Phight!





	1. Goddammit Valerie

**Author's Note:**

  * For [faedemon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/faedemon/gifts).



“Goddammit Valerie!” Danny screamed. Thunder cracked in his ears as erradict bolts of lightning flitted around him. His wet white hair stuck to his face in big clumps, sticking uncomfortably in his eyes. 

It’d been a normal afternoon. A rainy, April day, like any other rainy April day. He’d hung out with Sam and Tucker after school. They’d gone to the Nasty Burger. He ordered a Nasty Number Two meal with a strawberry milkshake.

She’d smiled at him as he ordered, her thick curls barely tamed by the required visor. “Can I stop by later?” she asked. And he’d smiled. Said of course she could. Because she was Valerie. Valerie Gray. He’d been so excited.

He never noticed the tightness of her breath or the twitch of her right eye.

He’d waited for her in his room, listening to a CD and praying to God or Clockwork or whoever was listening that he could just have one ghost free evening. That he and Valerie Gray could spend just a little bit of time together as friends without having to rush off and be enemies for the rest of the night. 

It’d been almost a year after they broke up when she darted towards him in the hall and blurted, “I want to be friends again.”

And Danny stood there, next to Sam and Tucker who shared that same you still can’t trust her look, and smiled. “I...yeah I’d like that.” 

They both flushed and headed off in opposite directions. Neither took any real steps towards their new goal of friendship for a couple weeks, but the idea danced in Danny’s mind. 

And then they started hanging out. Sitting together at lunch. Playing video games. Partnering for homework assignments. Normal non-ghostly activities. Non-romantic activities. Normal friend things. 

Until the day she dropped into his bedroom bleeding out of her arm and leg. 

Falling out of his desk chair, Danny looked up and the bleeding and infamous Red Huntress climbing through his window. He swallowed down his panic.

“I need help,” she said quickly.

“I--umm--I can call 9-1-1--” he stammered. He’d never been on this end of this exchange before and mentally made a note to thank his friends for always remaining so calm in these situations.

“No! Don’t!” She stumbled forward and onto the ground. “I--Danny. Please.” She took off her helmet, and he put on his best surprised face. “I know--I’m sorry--I never knew how to tell you and I didn’t want to get you involved, but I don’t think I’m going to make it all the way home, and I can’t reach where I need to put the stitches--God please say something! Danny--”

“Woah! Valerie you’re...oh...shit.” He barely fooled himself but apparently that was enough for her.

“Look, I know this is a lot right now--and I can explain everything but I need you to help me first.” She dismissed her suit revealing a sweaty, bloody mess. A large cut slid down the back of her left arm and leg. It looked like someone had been trying to cut her suit off.

He moved towards her, hands fidgeting. He should have been out there. He should be the one injured right now--this was all his fault. How did a ghost attack without him knowing? The ghosts had to go through the Fenton portal, and he’d been sitting here all night. There was no way he’d missed one. 

“Danny?”

He looked up at her and his mouth opened and closed before settling into a line. “I’m going to grab the first aid kit from the bathroom--don’t move.” 

She blinked at him, but when he came back she was still crumpled up next to the window. He gave her some ibuprofen and water as he started cleaning the wound.

“Sorry for bleeding on your carpet.”

He shrugged. Focusing. How did his friends do this? How were they able to see injuries on him and clinically stitch him up like a teddy bear. He felt the tears in his eyes before he knew he was crying.

“Are you crying?”

He glared at her.

“Sorry, standard question.”

Danny methodically wiped the wounds, cutting the fabric of her shirt and skirt when he had to. He grabbed the bottle of peroxide. “This might sting a little.” That’s what Jazz always said, but it couldn’t have been more of an understatement. Sam and Tuck had long stopped acting like the cleaning and stitching wouldn’t hurt as much as the injury itself.

“Fuck.” She clenched her teeth together.

“Sorry.”

“It’s fine.”

They fell into a rhythm of sorries and cleanings, trying to pretend like this was normal. Just another school assignment. They’d put together a presentation for science class about the combustive nature of ectoplasm and how it compared to other elements and what that could mean about its other possible properties. It’d been the first A either of them had gotten since freshman year. 

As he threaded the needle, he felt her weak eyes on him. “Have...have you ever done this before?” she asked. 

_ Yes. On myself. _ He started stitching. Slowly and deliberately, ignoring the sticky, red goo caking against his fingers. “My dad got injured about three years ago and because they're self-employed, we don’t have health insurance so he decided to grab me, his paling twelve-year-old son, and teach me how to do stitches on him. Said he had thick skin and that even if it scarred he wouldn’t care because looking at it would just remind him of me and that wonderful learning experience.”

“That’s traumatizing.”

“I know, right? Like I--fuck--wouldn’t you start with like a sock or something?”

She guffawed. “You mean you’d never sewn fabric before?”

“Never.” He scowled, continued the stitch. “ _ Character building experience _ . He said.  _ Going to be really important to know when you start hunting ghosts with your old man, Danno! _ Like what a thing to say to a twelve-year-old.”

Her laugh faded into a comfortable silence. “So, did it scar?”

His face fell but his eyes sparkled. “Are you doubting my abilities?”

She floundered at him.

“Oh you fly through my window at--three in the morning. Holy shit it’s already three, fuck. But you fly through my window--no. Crash.”

“Oh please.”

“You crash through my window and you have the nerve--the audacity--”

“You’re so dramatic.” She rolled her eyes.

“--to doubt my skills!” He finished her leg and tied off the stitch, laughing a little as he started on her arm. “But no, I passed out before I could even start the second stitch--my mom ended up finishing it.” His smile faded, wishing that had been the only time he’d ever had to stitch human flesh. “But, um, they’ve had other injuries throughout the years and, um, I guess you could say I’ve had some practice.”

A smile rolled across her face. “Guess I came to the right person.”

“Yeah,” he smiled back as he worked down her arm, easing into a quiet rhythm until he tied off the final stitch.

“I’m really sorry--”

“You don’t have to be,” Danny said quickly, cleaning off the needle He busied himself by organizing the first aid kit.

“Let me finish?” Her voice was so much smaller than Danny was used to. “I’m sorry you had to find out this way.”

Danny’s fingers froze. 

“I...I really value, uh, this.” She used her good arm to gesture between them. “And it was a really...um...long year, without you. And--and I’m not saying that I want to get back together because that would be--uh--yeah. But I...I don’t really have any friends. At least, I didn’t until, um, you.” She looked up at him quickly, and Danny saw the tears curling up in her eyes. “And I wanted to tell you about...me. Being...the Red Huntress. But everything kept getting more and more complicated and I couldn’t--there was never a good time and...I’m...I don’t expect you to get it and, I know ghosts terrify you so if you don’t want anything to do with me then I understand, but I--I really want us to keep being friends because I don’t know how I can possibly go back to--to…” She started crying.

Danny closed the first aid kit and fiddled with the clasp. He’d never been on this end of the reveal either, so he did exactly what he’d want anybody to do for him. He inched up next to her on her good side and hugged her gently, putting his nose in her thick hair and planting a protective kiss on her forehead. “I want to keep being friends too.”

She’d stared up at him for a moment after that, lips quivering before she swallowed. “Thank God.”

They’d gotten closer since then. She would come up to his window late in the night, take off her armor, and the two would talk until sunrise or they fell asleep on each other. It was perfect.

At least until this rainy April night, when she’d come in and said nothing, just paced in front of him like a rabid dog. Her hair still held the indent of her Nasty Burger visor, and she smelled vaguely of curly fries.

“Val, you okay?”

She pulled her fingers through her hair, starting to work out the knots in her curls. “Yeah. Fine.”

“Well I don’t believe that for two seconds.”

Her hands jerked as she toyed with the kink. “Do you think I’m doing the right thing?”

“I’ve never had long hair so I don’t know if I’m really the right person to--” 

Her glare stopped him. “Hunting ghosts. Do you think I’m doing the right thing?”

He sat down on his bed and slid the bed sheet between his fingers. It was cool and smooth and reminded him of the blanket he used to have as a kid. He used to put the frayed end up against his lips whenever he got stressed. He wondered whatever happened to it. “Somebody has to.”

“But why me?”

“I mean you could leave it to my parents or Phant--”

“Don’t even finish that sentence.”

He swallowed and went back to the sheet.

Her shoulders drooped down like leaves covered in heavy morning dew. “Have you parents ever mentioned something called a halfa?”

He coughed, choking on his spit for several seconds before looking up at her with hard eyes. “A what--a whata now?”

“Half-a? Half ghost-half…”

“Half? Half what?” He gripped the sheet tighter as the room spun around him.

“Half-human. Like a hybrid.” She stopped playing with her hair and went to her frayed sleeves. Ringing the edges around her wrists.

“I’m pretty sure that’s impossible, Val.” His voice was small.

Running her hands over her face, she grimaced. “I know it should be, but Danny--I met one.” And then quietly said, “Maybe two.”

“Two?”

“There was this girl...and then…” She trailed off but eyed him closely making any blood running through his veins freeze.

“Then what?” he stammered, “How do you know it wasn’t just a trick? Like that therapist ghost lady or-or that biker dude that tried to date Jazz? They have those, uh, husk-things. Skins? I don’t know--are you sure that--”

“I know what I saw!” She huffed and fell into his desk chair. Swiveling left and right. “These...these people--ghosts-- _ things _ \--Phantom told me about her.”

He rolled his eyes. “I thought you didn’t trust Phantom.”

“I don’t!” The chair spun around to the left. “I mean, I didn’t. I don’t know anymore.”

Danny’s heart jumped several feet to the left. “What?” Did she know? Why would she have come here if she knew? He knew Valerie, even if he told her about himself on his own terms she would still be royally pissed off at him. Maybe she just knew about Phantom being half ghost? But not that it was him?

“He...I gave the girl over to my employer, and--I had Phantom captured too--it’s a long story--I didn’t tell you right after it happened because I knew you wouldn’t approve.”

Danny rubbed the phantom blisters on his chest from her torture laser he didn’t approve of.

“And he told me she was human and a ghost.” 

He held in a grimace. He’d had no other choice--she’d had him restrained, and Vlad would’ve killed Dani--fuck. Vlad.

“And I...I guess I thought that she was just a fluke? Or some kind of failed experiment or something--she kept destabilizing, melting into a pool of ectoplasm…” Her voice trailed off as her eyes lost focus. She swallowed and looked at him closely. “But we saved her, and Phantom got this thing from your parent’s lab--apparently he goes down there a lot? You might want to tell your parents about that.”

“Valerie, get to the point.” He felt the sheet grow taunt in his tight fingers.

“Right. Sorry.” She started chewing on her lip, pulling in bits of cracked skin into her mouth and ripping them off. “We saved her. And--it wasn’t my employer that had taken her but this awful ghost named Plasmius--I think your parents call him the Wisconsin Ghost?”

He nodded. 

“Well, the ghost girl flew off, and then I, I don’t know what I was thinking, but um, I let Phantom go. As a show of good will, I guess? He’s...I don’t think I can trust him but…”

Danny thought his heart would pound out of his chest.

“But after Phantom left, I went back in to check on my employer--who was trapped in a closet. Who I saw get trapped in a closet. And he...um.” She trailed off but her eyes were burning, hands gripping her hair like she was trying to rip it out in large clumps. “He changed into Plasmius.”

Danny’s thoughts stopped. It felt like the earth started spinning faster and vertigo settled in. This was worse. This was so much worse than her knowing his secret. “Are you sure?”

Her eyes closed tightly, and she went back to pacing. “Yes? I mean...Yes. I am. It was him. Fuck it was him, Danny!” Her voice started to raise. “I’ve been doing all of his dirty work for two years now! His equipment is what’s made me a ghost hunter! And now--” She lowered her voice. “He’s a ghost?” Sitting down next to Danny on the bed, she laid onto her back. “Nothing makes sense anymore. Everything I know about ghosts I know from Mr--my employer.”

“Why are you still protecting his identity?” 

“Because…” Her brow furrowed as she sat up. “Because you know him.”

She’d said two. She didn’t know about him. There was no way she knew about him being Phantom.

“What?”

“Mr. Masters...Vlad Masters is Vlad Plasmius. He was too lazy to even change his first name!”

Danny blanched.

“I know, I’m sorry.” She rested a hand on his thigh for a moment. “It’s crazy. He’s a ghost. The man that helped my dad and I so much--the man who gave me purpose again! It just doesn’t make any sense! Why would a ghost give me ghost hunting equipment? How does somebody even become...that?” Her eyes closed. “Have I been wrong about everything? Or does this just prove once and for all that ghosts are evil and only out for themselves, regardless of humanity?”

Danny couldn’t make words come out of his mouth.

“And why is he always after Phantom? Maybe because of his cousin--the ghost girl, the other half-ghost is his cousin.”

“Phantom’s cousin.” She didn’t know Dani was a clone.

“Yeah. But I feel like I’ve stumbled onto something so much deeper than--” She glanced up at Danny, and suddenly she was backpedaling. “Shit--this is probably so much information for you to process--I mean, he’s basically your uncle and to find out he’s some bloodthirsty monster--”

“Bloodthirsty monster?”

“He’d tried to kill a little girl. And he’s a ghost.”

His words slowly started to come back to him. “So is the girl.”

“Yeah, but…” She stopped, as if she’d solved a proof only to realize that she’d made a mistake in the first step that had informed the rest of the problem and now she had to go all the way back to the beginning. 

Danny swallowed, but his mouth was dry. Pinching his nose between two fingers, he pulled hard to jolt himself back into the conversation. “What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know.” She breathed. “What do you think I should do?”

The patter of rain started steadily on his window. Walking over to close it, Danny chose his words carefully. “Nothing rash.”

“Me? Rash? Never.”

“Right,” Danny smirked, but it died quickly. “Maybe...nothing? Go on like nothing’s changed so Vlad--Plasmius?” Danny was getting really good at putting on his ‘stupid, I know nothing about this world’ hat. “If he is who--what--you say he is, then maybe you just need to stay away--”

“I can’t do that.”

“Why?”

“Because I am a ghost hunter! And he is a dangerous ghost, with clearly some vendetta against humans--” 

“But that doesn’t mean that you’re the one who needs to stop him!”

“That’s exactly what it means.” Her hands were in fists at her side. “It’s my job to take down the ghosts that threaten this world--and if nobody else knows about him--it’s my responsibility-- I can’t let him keep putting people at risk.”

“He’ll kill you!”

“Don’t doubt my skills, Fenton.” She stood up. “I have to stop him.” Her suit flew up around her as she opened the window.

Danny jumped between her and the window. “Do you have a plan?”

“Yeah, go in there and blast the shit out of him.”

“But what if he’s human?”

She stopped for a second. 

“Can you really bring yourself to shoot a human?”

She stared at him for a long second. “He’s not human. I just have to keep reminding myself of that.” She tried to shove Danny out of the way, but he was stronger than she thought he was. “Get out of my way.”

“Please, Val, I’m not trying to doubt you, but I don’t want you to get yourself killed.” He swallowed. “I...um...you…” A pressure built up in his chest and he blew it out in one long breath. “Vlad is my dad’s best friend--if even he doesn’t know--Vlad’s protected this secret for who knows how long--and this probably isn’t the first time somebody’s figured him out. Think about what he could do to you.”

“It doesn’t matter.” She tried to side step him but he moved with her.

“It does! If you die, then it’ll just go back to nobody knowing. How is that any better?” The rain licked at the back of his shirt and started running down his back.

He could see her considering what he said, the gears turning in her head. He was reaching her, somehow he was reaching her. As her eyes reset, his heart beat heavily in his chest. 

“Then I’ll expose him.”

“Great! Wait, what no--nobody will believe you.”

“You did!”

“Yeah, but...I…”

“And I’ll get proof. I’ll capture him changing on video and feed it to the Guys in White or the press or...” Her face softened. “Danny, it’s the only way. I have to do something--and I need to do it now.”

“That sounds pretty rash to me!”

She pushed Danny out of the way and reopened the window. The wind screeched in and rain water started to dribble onto the floor.

“If you do that he’ll expose you.”

“Doesn’t matter.” She had one foot out of the window when he grabbed her wrist.

“He’ll expose the girl--the Guys in White will go after her too.” And then him. And they’ll dissect--vivisect--them. All of them.

She stalled for a moment. “I don’t have a choice.”

“I can’t let you do this.”

The rain started to beat heavily on the pane, the din making it hard to hear each other. A crack of thunder rang through their bones as Valerie put a hand on Danny’s. “Then I hope you can forgive me for this.”

Suddenly a jolt ran struck Danny’s chest and threw him to the ground. She tazed him. She just tazed him! Blurrily he looked up at her climbing out the window, closing it behind her, and then flying off into the storm. 

“Fuck.” He couldn’t move.


	2. Wrong Daniel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this was supposed to be the last chapter but things got a little out of hand

Lightning lit up the city, creating a kind of noir-like world painted in bright overexposed flashes. Thunder shook the air as the wind and rain tore through the city. Trees swayed, windows bellowed, and water flooded the streets faster than the sewer drains could suck it down. Any cars on the road pulled over and any people daring enough to go outside were immediately pushed back in by the torrent.

Within the layer of thick dark clouds Danny pressed forward. The moisture seeped into his jumpsuit, and his hair clung to his face. Visibility was reduced to only a few feet in front of him. Every time the air electrified with a new bolt of lightning his core convulsed, the flashes pulling him back to his accident two years ago.

"Goddammit Valerie!" he screamed, slipping back into intangibility to feel a little bit further from the storm surrounding him. She said she was going to get proof which meant she probably made a bee-line towards Master's mansion. If he hadn't failed geometry he probably would have realized the very low probability of him beating her there after she'd solidified a ten minute head start with her little taser trick.

The mansion grew before him. First he could see the lights in the windows, then the bulking tresses, and finally the large tower like structures flanking either side. For a bachelor with no wait staff and such a large house, it shocked Danny how many lights were on. "Sam would have an environmental fit over this," Danny muttered, stalled in the air and looking around for the Red Huntress through the dense rain.

The lights in the house suddenly flashed off before flickering on and off and on and off, bulbs bursting in some rooms. The walls seemed to bend in and out as though the house began to breathe. Cracks formed along the ground, starting at the foundation and moving towards the front gate. Either Amity Park was experiencing its first earthquake in years or a very pissed off ghost was having a field day.

"Fuck." Danny zipped inside as his ghost sense trickled out. A scream echoed from the mansion that froze his blood. Valerie. That had to be Valerie. Slipping down into the lab, he almost screamed himself.

Valerie was pressed up against the wall, being choked by her own empty battle suit as Vlad floated in front of her. His dark aura crackled and electricity jumped through the air as his control over the suit intensified.

"Let her go!" he screamed.

Vlad's empty eyes whipped over to him as his aura jumped up another two feet. "You!" he screamed.

"Oh shit."

Vlad threw one of his signature electrified ectoblasts, and Danny felt his middle expand and separate, allowing the blast to zip through his own self-made hole. "Oh, gross gross gross, I hate doing that!"

"Phantom-" Valerie tried to choke out but the suit clung tighter and the color began to drain out of her face.

"No!" Danny screamed and rushed forward, tackling and turning Valerie intangible long enough to get her out of the suit's grasp.

She coughed behind him, barely keeping from collapsing on the ground.

"What do you think you're doing, boy?" Pink plasma blasts erupted around Vlad's fingers and came flying towards Danny who threw up a shield a moment before they hit.

"Stopping you!" He flew at Vlad, but the suit intercepted him and pinned him to the ground. Two big blasters flung from its back, pointing directly at his face and charged. "Ah!" He slipped through the ground and then grabbed the suit by the ankles and dragged it into the cement below the lab.

Plasmius growled, "I'm doing this for us!"

Danny flew back up between Plasmius and Valerie whose eyes locked on the two with dazed confusion. He grit his teeth, "Why would you think I'd want this?"

"She knows, Daniel-and if she knows about me, that means she's about a step away from knowing about you, too!" Plasmius flared again, "Now get out of my way so I can end this!"

"Just wait!" He glanced back at Valerie who stared at him with hazy recognition. "She-you don't need to do this! We can reach a compromise!"

"A compromise?" Vlad snarled. "Please, Daniel, she's the most ruthless ghost hunter I've ever had the pleasure of creating--you really think she's going to just keep our little secret just because you asked nicely?"

"I…" His breath caught in his throat, his core fluttered, sending tremors up and down his arms and neck.

"Phantom?" Valerie breathed.

He glanced back at her, but he couldn't say anything.

"Either the girl dies or we become lab rats!" Vlad's eyes flashed brighter and his hands spasmed until suddenly his voice and aura shrank. "And I...I can't do that again."

"You…?" Danny's eyes flew back over to Plasmius.

The older man didn't look at him. "You should be thankful you never ended up in the hospital after your accident."

"The Guys in White?" Danny asked as both halfas touched down. When Vlad didn't respond, Danny swallowed. "I...it happened to me a couple months ago."

The older halfa's eyes sparked with fury as the boy looked away. "Then you understand why she can't leave here alive!"

"We have plenty of enemies that know!"

"Wrong, Daniel!" Vlad sneered, " _You_ have plenty of enemies that know about _you_. No ghost hunter would ever believe a ghost, and if they did, they'd write you off as an anomaly. But a human--and a human ghost hunter as reputable as the Red Huntress decides to tell the world, people are going to believe, with or without evidence. And once they know about me, your parents will connect the dots easily enough to you." Plasmius looked over at the girl. "Or do you already know about young Daniel here? You're a smart girl; I'm sure you can fill in the cracks enough to see when someone's been lying to you."

Her eyes danced between the two ghosts for a moment, settling finally on Danny, looking him up and down with startled eyes as though she were seeing the other side of a quarter for the first time. "Danny?"

"Val, I can explain--" His breath caught in his throat as she moved further away from him, holding up her hands like a shield.

"Stay away from me!"

Danny felt his world melt around him, the walls close in tightly and the ceiling began to lower.

A laugh bubbled up from the older halfa and both teenagers glowered at him. "Tell me Daniel, how does rejection taste?"

Danny looked at the floor.

Vlad's eyes narrowed as his mouth quirked downward, and in the blink of an eye teleported directly in front of Valerie. He grabbed her face, forcing her to look at Danny. "Because if experiments don't scare you--this is what awaits you. Hate. Rejection. And fear. This world wasn't built for us--so either we end this now or you can expect that same rejection from everybody else in your life."

"That's not--get away from her!" Danny shouted, crouching into a fighting stance as Valerie pulled her head away from Vlad.

"Or what?" His eyes narrowed.

Danny charged him, tackling the older halfa to the ground away from Valerie and pinning him to the ground. Vlad struggled, attempting to turn intangible but Danny shifted with him, keeping his hold. "It seems you are learning, Little Badger."

"Shut up!" Danny started punching, landing hit after hit on Plasmius's face until he lost focus, and Vlad was able to slip away and across the room. "Ahh!" Danny turned to find him again. "Either you leave her alone, or I'll expose us both! To my parents. They'll--they'll accept me--but you? After what you've done to them? My mom-"

"Quiet!" Plasmius wiped the ectoplasm dripping down his broken nose as his face fell into a frown. "This is bigger than you and your little girlfriend! Don't you get that? Either she dies or we get dissected! Get that through your thick, pre-pubescent skull!"

Danny bit his lip and let the extra ecto-energy pooling in his palms dissipate. "I still can't let you kill her."

"Then it appears we're at a stalemate." Vlad touched down on the ground, but kept his chin up as a challenge.

Both halfas silently stared at each other, calculating the odds of success against an opponent equal to themselves. The air in the room grew still with apprehension and frustration. A distant crack of thunder shook the room, but neither moved.

"My dad can track my suit _,"_ Valerie blurted, drawing to sets of acidic eyes towards her, "If you kill me, and I don't come home, he'll know I disappeared here and he'll..."

"He'll what, Miss Gray?" Vlad's eyes narrowed.

"He'll bring you down. He's head of security at Axion Labs-- _your_ labs--he'll take you down before you can even--"

Vlad started laughing. "You really think your father scares me? A security guard, seriously? Daniel, are you hearing this?"

"She has a point Vlad," Danny said quietly.

"Excuse me?"

"He'll go to the police-and if he suspects you, he'll take anything suspicious from Axion and destroy you with it. You'd be publicly tried and ridiculed-imprisoned. And even if you escaped, you'd never see me or my parents again. You'd be alone." Danny felt the words dry on his mouth, seeping any feelings away with them.

Crossing his arms, Vlad's eyes flicked between the two of them. "I could ruin your life all over again, Miss Gray. Your father will lose his job, and I will personally make sure that he never gets hired again. And once nobody credits anything to him, I will kill him and make everyone think it was suicide. Or, better yet, I'll frame you and expose you as the Red Huntress. Then you'll be alone and when you're at your lowest and nobody believes you, I will do the same to you-"

"Shit, Vlad, stop. Just stop--she gets it! She's been threatened! Do you feel threatened, Val? I know I--" Danny stepped between the two of them again.

"Is this a game to you?" Valerie asked.

Danny spun towards her, her eyes flaring at him like small suns. "What, I--no--"

She looked away from him. "He's talking about murdering my father, and you're making a joke out of this?"

"Trouble in paradise?" Vlad smiled.

Valerie growled and turned back to Plasmius. "You're threatening me-it's just proof of your kind's evil intentions towards humanity-"

Vlad's laughter cut her off. " _Your kind's evil intentions?_ What are you, three?" His laughter fell into a quiet chuckle and then a quiet smirk. "If you expose me, you also expose Daniel-and I don't think you're willing to do that."

Her mouth opened and closed as tears began to fill her eyes that she quickly swallowed away.

"Val--"

She didn't look at Danny. "I won't tell anyone your secret--but you will stay away from my father and his job, understand?" Her face grew into cement as Vlad's quirked into a smirk. "And I want my suit back."

Plasmius disappeared for a moment and then emerged from the floor with the suit. "Here." Valerie reached for it and the suit started to latch back onto her skin, but Vlad pulled it back. "But know this, girl. I control this suit. So if you do anything even slightly out of my interest, I will destroy you."

The suit zipped back over and onto Valerie before she could protest. Its red armor moving over her inch by inch, until the visor covered her face. She immediately summoned the board beneath her feet and started to zip towards where her xray vision found the stairs.

"One more thing, Ms. Gray."

She stopped, and turned back towards the halfas.

"If I so much as hear you breath the words _half-ghost,_ I will not hesitate to destroy you and your father, understand?" He changed back in front of her, a normal, breathing human being standing before the fully armored Red Huntress. With a flick of his hand, the wall opened and the stairs appeared. "Ta-ta!" He gave her a little wave.

She zipped out without responding.

"Valerie, wait!" Danny yelled, but she was already gone. He flew towards the exit.

"Oh, and Daniel?" Vlad watched as the boy stopped in mid-air. "If she exposes us--before anyone can do anything, I will make your life hell, do you understand? She is your responsibility now."

Danny simply clenched his jaw and flew out of the mansion, once again chasing after Valerie into the storm.


	3. Don't Be Mad

_“Please leave your message for_ Valerie Gray _after the beep.”_

“Fuck!” He flew faster. “Valerie, it’s me again. Please answer your phone, I can explain everything just please, answer your phone!” He dipped down below the cloud layer and into the storm. Fenton Works in sight, he slipped into his bedroom through the wall as he punched in her number again.

“Took you long enough.”

“Shit!” he shouted, and bumblefucked his phone across the room as he jumped up into the air and clenched his chest.

She sat in the computer chair across from him, legs curled up tight and protectively against her torso. 

“Valerie--”

Her phone started to ring where it sat on Danny’s desk. _Incoming Call from Danny Fenton._ “Weird how you have the same number as Danny.” Her voice was as flat as a pane of glass.

“Val--”

“You might want to change that. People might get suspicious.”

He stumbled over to grab his phone and ended the call. “Please don’t be mad, I can explain--”

“Then again, who would suspect a ghost would have a phone. Or be the human son of two ghost hunters. Don’t come any closer.”

He froze in the air and slowly floated away from her. With his left hand he quietly reached over to lock the door.

“What? Don’t want your parents to come barging in on _public enemy number one_?”

“Well, they don’t exactly know.”

“Then who does?”

Danny swallowed. Information. He could do information. Easy. “Sam, Tucker, and, uh, Jazz, oh and some of the ghosts.”

“And Mr. Masters. And I’m assuming Danielle.” She tipped her head to the side. “I’m guessing you two aren’t actually cousins.”

“No...um, it’s a bit more complicated than that.”

“Huh. Seems like most things are.” She started picking at her nails, eyes flicking up to where he floated every now and then. “So are you just going to float there so your parents can detect you, or...?”

“Right...um, it’s a little bright you might want to look away,” he said and then mumbled, “Or yeah, just keep looking straight at me, that’s fine.” The bright rings slid over him, changing him back into Fenton. He watched her try to hide her shock and swallow back the tears in her eyes. “Valerie, please believe me, I never wanted to hurt you--”

“You know, it’s funny.” She stood up and started pacing the same rut she did most nights that they hung out. He wished he could go back to the day they’d fallen asleep working on an English project--one of those few magical nights that no ghosts attacked. He’d woken up with her curled up on his chest at about four in the morning, her quiet breaths brushing up against his wrist. “I broke up with you because of you.” She started laughing, and he joined in with careful chuckles until she abruptly stopped. “Why?”

Danny swallowed and carefully moved to sit on his bed. “Why what?”

She scoffed and looked at the dirty carpet covering his bedroom floor. Even if she looked closely, she couldn’t see any blood or ectoplasm stains. It hadn’t even occurred to her that the stain she should have left the night she revealed herself to him could have just been willed away by intangibility. “Must be a pretty helpful trick.”

“Trick? I’m not--”

“Intangibility, ghost boy,” she said, “Wish I could just will away blood stains instead of having to scrub for hours or buy another rug.”

“Oh, um, that. Yeah.” He scratched the back of his neck but kept his eyes everywhere but on her.

She sat back down in the desk chair. “You ruined my life,” she said without anything in her voice but air.

“Yup.”

“You gonna apologize for that?”

“I have. Many times.” He clenched his jaw. “I’m pretty sure the last time I did, you tried to shoot me in the face.”

“You deserved it.”

"Didn’t say I didn’t.”

A heavy silence fell over them. Most of the times when she came over they’d listen to a Dumpty Humpty album as they worked on homework so any silence was still filled with noise. But even when the CD stopped their laughter would destroy any moment that even dared into awkwardness. He’d been so lucky--he wished he hadn’t taken those moments for granted.

“Are you going to say something?” she asked.

“What do you want me to say?” He finally looked at her and outlined her face with his eyes. Memorizing it as though this would be the last time he’d ever see it. If he didn’t know her, she would seem contrite and unemotional, but he saw her mouth dripping down on the left side and the way her eyes reddened as though she’d been crying and tears were still hiding just behind them. She looked like she did the day they broke up.

“I don’t know.”

“Mm.” Danny pulled his eyes away from her crossing his legs and getting as small as possible. He wished he could take back the last week. Find another way to save Danielle. Keep Valerie from finding out about Plasmius. Preserve their fragile friendship for just a little bit longer. “Do you hate me?”

“I…” She wiped her nose on her sleeve and coughed to choke back her emotions. “I don’t even know you.”

“That’s not true.”

“Really?” She laughed and then bit her tongue, “Because I feel like if I really knew you I’d know that you were just a ghost masquerading as--”

“Is that what you think?” His jaw clenched and his hands pushed into the bed in tight fists.

“What am I supposed to think?”

“That I wasn’t lying to you--”

“Right--you’ve _never_ lied to me--”

“Would you just let me finish!” he shouted a little louder than he intended and grimaced as her mouth clenched shut. “Should I have told you who--what--I was--am? Yeah. Probably. But you _hated_ me. And then we broke up...and I just...I really missed--you? Us. I missed us. And then when we became friends again, everything was just so great--amazing even--Valerie these last few months--”

“Stop.”

“But--”

“No. These last few months were nothing but a lie.”

“No--”

“You’re a ghost, and you needed to keep tabs on me--and you _knew._ Long before I even told you. You knew. And you didn’t say anything!”

“Well, no, I did--I…” He swallowed, suddenly feeling very warm. “Just as Phantom.”

“Right.” Her lips puckered. “And _you_ told my dad.”

“Fuck. Right. Yeah--I know, and I’m sorry for that. But if you put on the ecto-skeleton it would have killed you and--”

“I don’t need protecting, Phantom.”

His breath caught in his throat and he squeezed his eyes shut. Hands shaking, he gripped the sheet on his bed, wanting nothing more than to cocoon it around himself and emerge in a couple months as a fully formed person, over any transgressions of the past. 

“Do you have any idea how hard that’s made hunting ghosts?”

“I--”

“No. I don’t think you do. He worries about me all the time--so now, instead of just worrying about myself and my safety, I have to think about him. And what he would do if something happened to me. Like something Vlad Masters would do to him if the whole conspiracy you two have woven comes to light.” Her nails dug into her sleeves. “He’s in danger because of you. We just got our lives back, Danny--I can’t believe you would--”

“How is this my fault?”

“You could have stopped me!”

“I tried! You wouldn’t listen to me--you never listen to me!”

“If you’d of told me--”

“Bullshit.”

“Excuse me?”

“If I’d’ve told you would have killed me or exposed me!” Neither took their eyes off of each other, the tension filling the room like mucky lake water, choking them and burning their eyes. Whatever mutual respect they’d had washed out of the room on a wave, leaving only the hunter and ghost.

Valerie looked away suddenly, closing her eyes tightly as her body shook. In a small voice she muttered, “Is that what you think?”

A bitter tsk left his mouth, and he looked away too. “What do you want me to think?”

Losing the war with her own face, tears started to fall down Valerie’s face, and she quickly spun away from him, hiding her face in her hands as sobs racked through her body. It was an ugly sort of coughing sob that she fought every second. “I trusted you.”

Danny clenched his jaw and swallowed by soon tears started falling down his face, too. 

“You’re my best friend. I--I lo--” she mumbled and then shouted, “Fuck!”

The boy winced and pulled the blanket up around himself.

“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” Her clenched fists fell from her face and started banging on the desk. Rocking back and forth, she stifled another screaming sob with her sweating hand.

“V-Val--” He reached towards her.

“No! Stay away from me!” She glared at him but the only thing behind her eyes was fear. 

He moved towards her and spun the chair towards him. Their faces inched together. Tear stained eyes meeting each other and mouths quivering. He pushed back her tangled curls with one shaking hand. He found himself transported to that perfect moment on the ferris wheel, when she’d leaned her head on his shoulder. When everything had been so simple and the only thing that scared him was how badly he wanted to kiss her.

“Don’t…” But there was nothing behind it. She couldn’t help the way that his body being so close to him made her feel safe. The way it felt so right even though their respective places in life made it so wrong. “Danny, I--” 

“Don’t.”

She collapsed into him and grabbed him tightly, pulling him close with claw-like hands. Like a baby grasping onto anything that rubbed against its palm.

He tensed for a moment before pulling her into himself, caressing her hair with the slightest touch as her nails dug into his back and her form racked against him with each sob. 

After a few moments, they pulled apart and somehow ended up sitting across from each other on the floor, searching the other for something unanswerable and unthinkable. 

“We’re so fucked,” Valerie finally said.

Danny snorted.

“I...uh…” She smiled because it was the only thing left to do. “I started this week thinking that I knew who my friends were and knew everything that I needed to about ghosts, and now...here we are.”

“Here we are.” 

They stared at each other.

“I--” they both started.

“No, you go,” Danny said. 

“No--you.”

“Okay…” Biting his tongue, he took up a thoughtful expression that quickly darkened. “I can explain, err, try to explain anything you have questions about.”

She looked him up and down, surprised by how the cocky ghost she’d known for two years could look so small. After everything--after destroying her life--somehow inadvertently. After destroying her first suit. After exposing her to her dad. She sobered. “Would he really kill my dad?”

Danny’s cheeks puffed and then he let out a long breath. “Yeah.”

Her body tingled, starting at the top of her head and dripping all the way to her toes. “He’s insane.”

“Yep.”

“Is there anything I can do?”

Biting his tongue, Danny kept his eyes on the carpet, pulling it up again. “Follow his rules? Don’t expose him--uh, us. Don’t cross him.”

“So be blackmailed?”

“I didn’t say it was a great plan.”

“It’s a really sucky plan.”

“Do you have anything better?” 

She didn’t. Her brain trucked through scenario after scenario, trying to find a way to break his hold on her that wouldn’t get her father killed or destroy their lives, but every instance lead to the same outcome. “God! This sucks!”

“Yup.” He bit his cheek. “Try having the only other person who’s like you be that fruit loop.”

“What about Danielle?”

He huffed. “I mean, yeah, but also...Fuck, how do I explain this?” He muttered the last part.

“With words.”

A smirk coated his face as he shook his head. “Thanks.”

“No problem.”

His smile slid off his face as quickly as it came. “Vlad...okay. So when I found out about him…” And he told her the truth. About how Vlad revealed himself to him; wanted him to renounce his dad and join Vlad as his _little badger._ She’d shuddered at that part. How he’d watched the man lose his mind over the last two years after reconnecting with the Fentons and every one of his plans being thwarted. And then the start of the experiments. The cloning. Danielle.

“Wow,” she said, voice sitting neutrally but eyes bugging out.

“Yeah.”

“She’s your clone…” She blinked. “Huh.”

“But we’ve uh, figured out that her human half is kind of a husk? And that her ghost form is her true form, which means she’s more of a ghost than a human and within the next year or two the connection between the two sides will, uh, snap...and…I try not to think about it.” Danny’s stomach sunk down to his feet.

“What are you--”

“Can we stop talking about her?” He bit his lip. “I, um, I don’t want anything to be off limits, but, I--I’m a little emotionally drained and I don’t want to spiral down that rabbit hole tonight.”

She nodded slowly. “Sorry.”

“No, it’s fine--really. I just...uh, worry.”

Her fingers started to run through her hair again. The pain as she pulled on each tangle numbing her to anything she felt emotionally. “So, he’s trying to kill your dad, too?”

“Guess he just has a thing for dads.” They both laughed, but it didn’t get much further than a physical sensation. 

“He’s a monster.”

Danny shut his eyes and when they opened he stared at the ground. “Yeah.”

The gears started turning in her mind. “So he’s started to lose his mind because he can’t fulfill his obsession?”

The halfa sighed. “Yes and, well...I mean...Half ghosts don’t really have obsessions? So to speak? At least, uh not like full ghosts...but, um Vlad gave into his ghost half a long time ago...he um...I don’t know if you heard him say it, back there today, but um...when a ghost forms, if their core gets messed with it becomes corrupted, and it’ll never heal right if it doesn’t form properly the first time.”

“The Guys in White did that to him.”

“I’m assuming.”

“Why didn’t they do that to you?”

He froze.

“I mean, you said that they captured you, too, right?”

“Yeah...but they thought I was just a ghost--and they thought Vlad was just a human with severe ecto-contamination. Probably did it in some backwards attempt to reverse whatever the protoportal did to him--he didn’t form right away like I did.” He blinked at her when he saw her confusion. “Oh, um, right.” He explained the accident to her--his and Vlad’s--as carefully as he could. The subject felt so taboo to him--especially explaining another ghost’s death. It didn’t feel like his place, but he also couldn’t just not tell her at this point. “I never really knew why he was so...um...messed up...but it kinda makes sense. I actually feel a little bad for him.”

“Why?”

“Because under different circumstances, the same could’ve happened to me.” He swallowed. “Look, Vlad’s awful and manipulative and an asshole, but whatever the Guys in White did to him fucked him up. Bad. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.”

“That still doesn’t excuse his actions.”

“No, of course not, but--”

“There’s no buts Danny. He’s tried to kill your dad and me, and now he’s threatening to kill mine. He’s a bad person. Some people are just bad.” She crossed her arms.

“I…” Danny rubbed his hand hard down his face. 

Her thoughts staggered as she considered him. “But that doesn’t mean that you’re like him.”

He looked up at her, but she looked away.

“I don’t understand you--I don’t understand ghosts or even humans, apparently, and I definitely don’t understand halfas.” Her tongue scraped against her teeth. “You died. And nobody even knew.”

“Well, no, Sam and Tuck--”

“Your parents? Your sister?”

“She found out eventually.”

“Our classmates? Me?” Her words caught, and she wiped away a stray tear. She thought she’d gone dry by that point. “And you’re just walking around like nothing’s happened.”

“Because I’m still me.”

She squinted at him and shook her head. “Are you? Or are you just going through the motions and pretending to be a human like Vlad is?”

“Vlad...I’m still me, Val. And Vlad...Vlad’s still himself just...I can’t speak for him. And you didn’t even know me before the accident--how can you say I’m not me if you didn’t even know me when I was fully human?”

She said nothing.

“Valerie, I’m half-ghost, yeah, but I’m still half-human. I still have a life, because I’m still alive. I’m still me--I’ve always been me except now I can fly and shoot lasers and stuff.”

She rolled her eyes. “It’s a lot more complicated than that!”

His mouth opened but he couldn’t say anything right away. He scratched the back of his neck and his leg bounced. “Yeah, but also, no. I’m a ghost. But I’m still a human.”

“But you’re also neither.”

“I--uh.” He groaned. “Yeah. I try not to think about it.” Shaking his hair through his hands, he tried to wash away the day with little success. “But I never lied about us. You. The way I felt--feel, I mean. Who I am as a person. None of that was a lie. And even if I couldn’t tell you everything about me--”

"Because you were terrified of me.”

“And you hated me.”

“Touché.”

“I’m not masquerading as anything--I no more a ghost than I am a human. And, if I’m being honest with myself, I really only have two forms because I keep my identities divided in my head...”

She opened her mouth, but he interrupted her.

“Just try not to think about it.”

“There’s a lot you try not to think about, huh?”

He scoffed but couldn’t deny it. 

“I don’t hate you,” she said quietly.

“Great cause I’m still terrified of you.”

“What?”

“Those guns?” he smirked, pointing at her arms. “And not to mention your ecto-weapons and--”

“Danny, I’m being serious.”

“Right. Sorry.” He fixed his pant leg, pulling it over his ankle. “Thank you...for listening...and not just shooting on sight.”

“You really think I’m that impulsive?” She guffawed when he pulled down his shirt and showed the dwindling mark from the taser. “Right. Fair. Sorry about that. It...um... wouldn’t have burned a human.”

He shrugged.

Her eyes looked over him cautiously. “Are you still afraid of me?”

He took a long breath and let it out slowly. 

She looked away. “It’s okay if you are.”

“No...if I’m being honest, I was scared of your reaction when you inevitably found out but...here we are.”

“Here we are,” she echoed, the sound bouncing around the room and rattling inside her brain like gong. 

The room stilled around them and the clock flicked over to eight o’clock. Dying sunlight danced through the window as the rain finally stopped, painting the room in blues and oranges. The smell of the city evening air tainted by the past rain permeated the room, both comforting and revolting.

“Are you hungry?” Danny suddenly asked.

“What?”

“Food? Dinner? It’s eight...We could grab a pizza or something...and just start over?” He was shaking again, but his shoulders held the confidence of Phantom as he stood up and reached for her hand.

“Yeah, that sounds nice.” She took his hand and stood up next to him. When she tried to let him go, he held her hand tighter. 

“What?”

“Can we keep being friends? That is, if you’re okay being friends with a, well, a ghost?” He kept blathering, stumbling over words and apologies as his hand began to sweat in hers. He confused her, how he could be so confident and even downright terrifying and then fall into this scared school boy. 

She didn’t know what he’d want her to do to calm him down, so she did what she’d want anybody to do for her. She pulled him into a hug and kissed his hair softly. “Of course I still want to be friends.”

“Thank God,” he smirked.

They both blushed as they pulled away from each other and stood staring at each other, frozen in place like awkward stone statues until Valerie suddenly popped out of it. 

“Now, common, _Invisobill.”_

He groaned, “That’s not--”

“I’m hungry, and you-- _we_ \--we both have quite the slate to clean.” She smirked at him as they walked out of the room. He was the same person--the same goofy to the point of irritating person she’d come to care about two years ago. And though the trust between them wasn’t going to suddenly rebuild itself, she left the room feeling like maybe they’d be able to build something new where their tower of lies and patchy truths had fallen. Something honest and strong. Something real. Normal. Somehow, they, the two weirdest teenagers in the world, were going to build something real. 

Neither felt hope like they did in that moment for the last two years. Hope for each other. Hope for a stronger connection. Hope for the future. 

Because even when everything was going wrong, they still had each other. They still had hope.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AHHH This chapter was so hard to write.

**Author's Note:**

> Full prompt by Faedemon: Valerie and Danny have started a tentative friendship after being away from each other post-breakup. On her own, Valerie decides to reveal to Danny that she’s the Red Huntress, and she also tells him she’s been having doubts about her hunting. She’d been led astray by Vlad for so long--what if she was wrong? Danny counsels her.


End file.
